Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Leader charged for 'Soviet crimes'

Why, I wonder, has this not happened all over the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism? Other than the execution of Romania's first couple, and Germany's prosecution of former East German strongman Eric Honnecker, there has been a notable absence of rough justice for Marxist murderers.

Of course, this may indicate the differing views that our own cultural elites (and those in other countries) have towards communist butchers, as opposed to fascist butchers. Many an "intellectual" has a soft spot for Castro, but mention the name Pinochet in their presence and they go apoplectic with rage.

A few years back a British woman was exposed has having been a spy for the Soviet Union. Confronted by the media in her garden, she shrugged it off with some nonsense about standing up for the oppressed. And by "oppressed" she didn't mean Russian Jews or residents of the Gulag. As far as I know she was never prosecuted, nor was there any big hew and cry that she should be.

Imagine what might have happened had she been pegged as fellow traveler of Pinochet or General Franco. The chattering classes would have hounded her to an early grave.